#danganronpa fan games

[silent-partner-412]

so the first chapter of project eden's garden, the high profile danganronpa fan game, just came out last night, and when i tell you i spent literally the entire night from like 5pm to 5am binging that shit... it was so goddamn good. the danganronpa games have always been really good at being compelling despite their... questionable writing because of the combination of the premise, the genre, and the heavy focus on characters, and having this fan game do basically that but also have good dialogue means this was more or less an instant win.

that said, there was one part of the case that's been nagging at me, and i realized now that it bugs me less because the fix seems really easy to me, but it makes me wonder why they didn't just... do that instead. spoilers ahead for the whole chapter.

so, the timeline of events in the boiler room as told in game makes no sense. diana says to have entered the boiler room at 8:45, she then has the confrontation with wolfgang, he's killed by eva and then the subsequent blackout occurs, and then diana spends the next hour or so until we hear her run by fiddling with the lock in the dark until she's able to pick it. however, the blackout and wolfgang's time of death are 9:35, almost that whole hour after diana is supposed to enter the boiler room. these two things cannot both be true; i'm pretty sure this case as told is just impossible.

however, it makes me wonder... why not have diana just walk in on a sleeping wolfgang at 8:45, get locked in, see he's just lying there unconscious, attempt to leave via lockpicking, and then the confrontation only happens closer to the actual time of death? you could easily justify it as eva waiting until the party was distracted enough to do the deed unnoticed. you could also justify her using the traitor perk since she'd probably want to keep an eye on diana so she doesn't pick the lock and just leave. i think this would fix things more or less in their entirety, or at least get it to a point where i could more easily suspend disbelief.

as far as i can tell, not a lot of fans seem to care about this? i could be wrong but the only discussion i saw on the game's discord server happened when i myself brought it up; the rest has all been almost about character related stuff. which, like, i get it, that's more or less what makes this series so compelling. but considering how big of a hole in the case this is, i'm shocked that i feel like the only one has even noticed. cuz i can't be the only one that noticed; if i noticed, i feel like it should be fairly obvious.

[hopeymchope]

Are you by any chance familiar with Project: Eden’s Garden?

All I know is that it's a fan game inspired by Danganronpa that exists. (Not sure if it can be called a "Fanganronpa," because I'm not clear on whether it carries over anything from the existing DR franchise — continuity, mascots, trial system? Idk.) I also know that it's still in the early stages. Beyond that, I don't know anything. But from Googling to look at its trailer and some artwork, I can at least say it looks good. Very promising. ... though I've sure said that many times before.

Because in my cynical/pessimistic experience, 90% of fangan video series or DR fan games never actually reach completion — the team falls apart, life gets in the way, motivation dries up, or something along those lines. It's no different than so many WiP fanfics... and I should know, because I'm personally very much guilty of that. :P My point is just that many, many promising DR fan games/series have collapsed over the years, and it's deeply frustrating to never have any kind of completion/closure if you've following along with the project. So at this point, I tend to avoid them until they finish. And then they inevitably don't finish, so I have nothing to catch up on. :P Even in the rare case that they DO finish, there's the question of whether they're (A) in English and (B) playable at all for people who aren't, like, into coding or something. So.... yeah. I'm a party pooper; sorry.

I still am happy to support the existence of such projects, and I certainly hope that they come to fruition. Particularly since we're all starved for Danganronpa content these days. :P

I think only the two Korean "Danganronpa Another" games have ever actually been finished AND translated? So I do intend to (ideally) play those someday, but it's proven difficult to access and translate them. Ofc I want to do them in order, but the first one seems to have a lot of hoops to jump through to get it working, and thus far I've found the steps too difficult to follow. :( I might have to settle for watching it on a YouTube series or something. Which just ain't the same, y'know?

If there are any other fan games that have actually finished, though, feel free to let me know.

[wanderingxmoth]

seen other people draw these three goobers together

[digitalcherrii]

I think they know, man.

[leobeedeo]

i got into danganronpa a decade too late

[frootbyethefoot]

programming like this was made possible by viewers like you

[solunstell]

Miu Iruma, Danganronpa, 11-11-24

[chocopink]

Don't mind me getting into Danganronpa in 2024

[coficarameru]

Capturing the moment

[silent-partner-412]

so, i just played through chapter 1 of project eden's garden again with a friend of mine, and of course we had a great fucking time, and it had us thinking about what would be a compelling future for this game. so i decided to outline a basic idea of what i think could be an interesting set of cases for the rest of the game, and what i think that would look like story-wise. naturally, we have no idea what plans they have for the characters that remain, and how they will develop, so i could be completely off base here. but i think we have enough info about them all that i could see all of this working somewhat well and being interesting. spoilers for chapter 1, of course.

ok, to start, chapter 2. i think this one doesn't need a whole lot of explanation motive wise; my biggest worry if anything would be that the communist killing the billionaire would be too predictable. but so far, we haven't seen a ton of outward animosity from cassidy towards wenona, and i think having cassidy be a killer and wenona be a victim would be interesting as their personalities would suggest the opposite based on danganronpa history. also, i hate to say it, but i think cassidy sort of needs to die early. she's got a pretty loud and sometimes abrasive personality and i think it would be ill-suited for the later chapters tonally. but also, what the fuck do i know?

chapter 3 is hard because i think this of all chapters will be crucial for this game's reputation, and yet, the two characters i put in here were both basically the remaining ones after i figured out the rest of the chapters. simply put, i think eloise would be a super boring victim because she just SCREAMS victim energy to me, and i also just don't really see ulysses making it super far. i also think ulysses' notebook has more potential to be interesting if he is the victim compared to the killer, but maybe i'm not thinking deeply enough about it.

so my friend actually was the one who gave me the idea for chapter 4 here. the idea is that, by this point in the story, stakes are high enough and the atmosphere is bleak enough that ingrid is willing to make a sacrificial play to get toshiko out alive. it would require some specific, extremely thoughtful writing to make this work, especially regarding the rules of a double murder where there are not only two victims but also two killers. but, i think if done well, this could be really fucking incredible. it would follow the chapter 4 trope of a muscular character dying, but i think that would be worth it. as for mark and jett being the victims, my main idea was that if the two killers here are seen as a "pair", it would be fitting for the victims to be as well. this is also about as far as i'd personally be willing to let jett live, since i think he sort of has to die before the late game similar to cassidy. i also think it would be good to bring whatever's going on between jett and mark to a head by this point, making it potentially relevant to the case. i don't know, either way my friend cooked with this idea and if it becomes reality i will probably lose my shit.

chapter 5 is also hard because so much of what makes these chapters good story-wise depends on which characters are given a lot of attention by the narrative, and by this point, i simply have no idea which characters that will apply to. but i think desmond and diana, as far as we know them now, would fit the bill as shocking and heartbreaking late game deaths. i'm not entirely sure how it would play out story-wise, but i could see diana being something of a parallel to wolfgang by this point in the story, being a uniting force of some kind whose death shakes people, with desmond being the cool and collected killer who maybe doesn't want to kill, but is forced to for some reason. i also think it could be a chance to subvert expectations by making desmond's method of killing have nothing to do with his talent, perhaps via something like poisoning or burning. once again, i think this will all depend on what the writers do with the plot and characters, but right now, i could see this being good.

our final idea was that instead of having chapter 6 be the "here's all the plot" chapter, which has never been particularly exciting to me, it's the final murder that decides which two characters get to leave. i think it would be hard to write this, but we had the idea that damon is the killer, and instead of it being a bait and switch like with kaede in v3, you're trying to convince the others with evidence that you are not the killer. i think this could be interesting in a couple ways: either you fail, and our last two survivors are jean and grace, or you succeed, and damon is the sole survivor of the game. as for why kai would be the victim, i think it would be fitting and heartbreaking based on the way they're setting up damon and kai's relationship early on. assuming that gets developed, i could only imagine how awful it would be for damon to choose kai as his victim at that point in the story. like chapter 4, i think this concept would be super tough to get right, especially since at this point, there would only be three people in the trial. but it sure would be exciting!

as for the survivors... well, of course, i could see chapter 6 killing both of them off, but if they survive, i think it would be existentially horrifying for jean to be one of the people to make it out alive. my friend offered the idea of "what if the captain didn't go down with the ship", which i personally thought was brilliant. he's also just smart and level headed; i think it's not hard to envision a guy like him making it to the end. as for grace, i could see her being like fuyuhiko, where she's absolutely awful and insufferable early on, but the events of the game soften her a bit and make her a lot more likable and easy to root for by the end. admittedly, right now, she's easily my least favorite character in the cast, but i see potential within her, and i think this would be a way to fulfill said potential.

would this all make for a good game and a good story? i have no idea. but it was a fun exercise for me, since i already enjoyed the shit out of chapter 1, and i like thinking about these characters.

[dreamsy990]

YAY I GOT THIS DONE ON HIS BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAJIMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YOU RUINED MY LIFE AND ALSO MAYBE SAVED MY LIFE. WHO THE FUCK KNOWS I DO LIKE YOU A LOT THOUGH

[lesbiansonadow]

I haven’t drawn anything sdra2 related in 3 YEARS!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!! Take this lackluster drawing of the otonokoji twins if I designed them instead

[golfishwiththebigeyes]

Since all the kids are raving about “toxic yaoi” nowadays, I thought it was a decent time for a revival of my eighth grade cross-game crackship, perhaps the people will enjoy this

I have rationale I swear lol.

ft. The aftermath of the interaction that follows this one (which I may make a comic out of, we’ll see)

[hinalatte]

A Thematic Analysis of Chapter 2’s Killer

Drdt spoilers. Obviously

There’s a lot of people who have started liking Ace more since this episode. I am not one of those people. He’s always been my favorite character. I’ve suffered from paranoia as well, and it sucks when people don’t take that shit seriously. Just because it’s irrational doesn’t mean it’s not harmful, and just because it’s stupid doesn’t mean the person suffering from it is stupid. I related to him a lot because of that. His issues are constantly downplayed by the people around him. Either that, or they think he’s irreversibly crazy for fears he can’t really control.

But besides that, I like him because his brain is fun to pick apart. He has so many problems. It’s a genuine shame he’ll never be able to get over them. It’s not the direction I expected his character to go, but it makes a lot of sense.

All that glitters is not gold.

The title made me think that a “good person” would be the killer, but it was Ace, a “bad person.” And his victim was Arei, another “bad person.” The people who died this chapter were the cast’s “worst people,” people who were outcast by everyone else for being bullied. But this chapter also shows their human sides—maybe they were only bad people because they were never given a chance to be good, like Arei. Maybe they were pushed to extremes because nobody treated their problems seriously, like Ace. Meanwhile, the cast’s “good people” are all revealed to be worse than they seemed. That was the thematic reason behind the motive secrets. Some of the others have done things far worse than Arei or Ace.

Nico was someone most of the cast liked. They were never mean to anyone, and they were constantly the victim of Ace’s bullying. They were easy to like, or at least easy to not hate. They quickly formed a bond with Hu (because Hu seeks out people she thinks need her protection). But in this chapter, they tried to kill someone. They admit themselves that it was reprehensible. Nico is a “bad person”.

Hu was supportive of everyone in chapter 1, positioning herself as a motherly figure. She was kind, caring, and helpful. But in chapter 2, she infantilized Nico to the point that she thought they can’t speak for themselves during the trial. She let biases cloud her judgement. She derailed the trial without good reason, because she wanted to be helpful to Nico, even when they weren’t asking for her help. Hu is a “bad person”.

Levi was called a good person by Eden at the start. He’s polite, takes care of other people, and reached out to Ace of all people. But in this chapter, it’s revealed that he did all of that for his own convenience. He doesn’t care about other people. He’s a murderer. He’s a “bad person”.

Levi threatened Ace, making Ace’s paranoia worse. Nico tried to kill Ace, confirming Ace’s idea that he was going to die if he didn’t get himself out of the killing game. Hu defended Nico, confirming Ace’s idea that everyone was against him.

The so-called “bad people” are cursed to die, while the so-called “good people” are shown to have been bad all along.

And isn’t that far more interesting than showing that good people can do bad things, and ending it like that? Now all the so-called “good people” have to live with the fact that their actions led to Arei’s death, without having been Arei’s actual killer. Arei was killed by the cast’s mistreatment, negligence, and trivialization of Ace Markey.

Thematically. Not literally, of course. Ace did that.

But their culpability in Arei and Ace’s deaths, even tangentially, shows in full color the consequences of letting their flaws go unchecked.

And in the context of Nico and Hu specifically, I can’t wait to see how that impacts them in the long run. Chapter 2 was all about facing the darkest sides of some of these characters. So wouldn’t it stand to reason that Ace’s death would influence some of them (like Nico) to examine their actions more closely and try to grow from them?

I can see Nico cutting off their friendship with Hu after this. She refused to acknowledge their fault in the situation. Since Nico is an objective person, I think they’ll understand the part they played in the Ace/Arei situation, and want other people to understand it as well. They won’t want Hu’s misplaced protection anymore.

And for Hu, I have no idea where she’s going after this. After her performance in this trial, where her flaws were pointed out to her by all the other characters, is she going to reflect and change? Or is she going to regress first, especially now that Ace, who she believed to be a villain, actually snapped and killed someone?

A big theme of chapter 2 has been growth. Ace shows the consequences of not growing. He was pushed to murder because of the rest of the cast not confronting their flaws, and he himself committed the murder because he didn’t know how to change.

It’s a bit of a hopeful spin on his death, but I’ll be honest—I’m still majorly bummed out about it. His life has just been terrible and will be terrible until it ends. He’s a horrible person with blood on his hands. He’s a coward and a bully who is hated by everyone. It’s all he’ll ever be, because he’ll die before having the chance to be someone else. Nico, through the sheer coincidence of having their murder interrupted, will be able to grow and change. Ace never will. A terrible life and a terrible death for a terrible person. And he won’t be missed. Not like Arei. Not like Min. Not like Xander. People like Nico, Rose, and Eden may feel bad about it, but no one will miss Ace specifically, because no one likes him.

If you were able to change and become a better person, it only means you were a good person to begin with.

If you weren’t able to change, it means you were doomed from the start. There’s no use trying.

There’s another world where people took Ace’s fears seriously. Where they didn’t dismiss him as a joke at the start and a volatile dog at the end. He might’ve survived if that happened. No matter what David says, bad people can change, if they know how to do it.

When this chapter finishes, I might make a full thematic analysis of it. There are still a bunch of things to say. I’ll just leave this post off with: Nico survivor stocks going up! Invest now!

[shy-the-trash-lion]

Some Hundred Line Things!

[menticidemushroom]

Project Eden's Garden Theories + Minor Analysis 🍎

Not a specific death order theory, just an excuse to yap because I'm hyperfixating

This is very long and it probably doesn't make sense.

🐍 Damon Maitsu- Ultimate Debater

Obviously everybody has the mastermind theory. It's the garden of eden and Satan was the snake. I do agree with the Satan analogy, but more so as an "outer" symbolism as opposed to an "inner" symbolism. Let me explain that better. I think that Damon will come of as antagonistic to the group because he says the right things in the wrong way. Like how he was trying to help everyone by telling them not to trust each other, but he was a dick about. Damon will play the Devil in the perception of the cast, but I don't believe that he will be actually behind the Killing Game.

🐦‍⬛ Eva Tsunaka - Ultimate Liar

I understand the first culprit theory. Eva is a similar name to Eve, Eve is the first human to sin, Eva is the first cast member to kill. That makes sense, but I see her taking on a more Kirigiri kind of role. Smart girl sort of side protag actively tries to hunt down the mastermind. However, since she's the Ultimate Liar and the cast already seems distrustful of her, I could see Eva discovering the secret to the killing game or the true mastermind but no body believes her which either leads to Eva killing the mastermind, or the mastermind killing/framing her. (Like Junko trying to frame Kirigiri in chapter five.)

🦈 Desmond Hall - Ultimate Marksman

I don't have much for Desmond. I feel like he'll either be a victim or a survivor. I can't see him as a culprit. At least not intentionally. I could see him trying to protect someone and killing their attacker in the process on accident, but I lean more towards a victim for him.

🦢 Eloise Taulner - Ultimate Fencer

I see Eloise as a survivor, but I lean towards a culprit. It's not a strong theory, but I see them trying to flip the shrinking violet trope on its head. In the chapter one preview from the San Antonio game expo we see Wolfgang trying to "help" Eloise by offering to walk with her before they go exploring and she seems to get annoyed with him. I could see this being a way to show that Eloise isn't a fragile as she let's on.

🦩 Toshiko Kayura - Ultimate Matchmaker

I want to believe that since she's literally a baby that she won't die, but part of me believes that since she's so young she will die. My current theory is that she's either the chapter one or two victim. I could definitely see the team choosing to kill her off early as a sort of "shock value" for the cast. Because I'm sure seeing a child get murdered would be more psychologically damaging then seeing an adult die. I'll be honest my Toshiko theory is kind of weak.

🐻 Wenona - Ultimate Entrepreneur

I see Wenona as a kind of Celeste character. The whole "if you do not adapt, you will die" mindset. I could see her staying distant from the group the majority if the time. I think that she will be a culprit, chapter three specifically. In the chapter on trailer we see during her free time event that the bear symbolism they gave her represents strategy. I feel like she'll have a really complex murder plot since she's obviously smart. She's also a Native American woman in the field of business. That's obviously not something easy. I highly doubt that she would give it up so easily. Plus, she's a billionaire. As much as I love Wenona, she's evil.

🦉 Ulysses Wilhelm - Ultimate Historian

Let me start by saying tat he is my favorite. Unfortunately, that means he's going to die. He writes everything in his notebook, if that doesn't sound like a major point of discussion in a trial, I don't know what does. I could also see him surviving, but I lean more towards a victim for him. The only reason I seem him surviving is that there could be this big moment in the final trial where they have to connect several seemingly unrelated notes in his notebook to find the big mystery or whatever. Anyway, I love him and if he dies I will lose it.

🐊 Mark "Mayhem" Berskii - Ultimate Music Producer

I can see Mark as a victim or a culprit and both of them revolve around Jett. As we see in the prologue, Mark is a very shy and reserved person. Obviously this paints a target on his back and any character who has a close friendship is another death flag. I could see him being killed and Jett falling into despair, or killing somebody with Jett.

💄Diana Venicia - Ultimate Cosmetologist

Diana is a character who I feel very strongly about as a survivor. It's not a strong theory, but it's just what feels right. Most people take the chameleon symbolism to be negative, but I don't see it as good or bad. I think it just emphasize that Diana is your average sixteen year old girl blending in with the crowd. She'd not a threat, she isn't aggressive, she just a teenaged girl. She is kind, she is helpful, she loves makeup. She just wants to love her life. She's so plain that she'll blend in and she will live.

🐑 Wolfgang Akire - Ultimate Lawyer

Oh boy, here we go. This is the big one. I believe that Wolfgang will either be a victim or a survivor. He will be the antagonist, but he is not a villain. Like I said for Damn who says the right thing in the wrong ways, Wolfgang will say the wrong thing is the right ways. I truly believe that Wolfgang has good intentions, but he is so optimistic and passionate that he lets his savior complex to bring everybody into a more vulnerable state. Like Damon's snake symbolism alluding to him bring the "devil" to the group, Wolfgang's sheep symbolism shows him as the "angel" to the group. The lamb of God, the Messiah, the guardian angel. He wants to save everybody, but he can't because he doesn't accept the horrible truth of the group's situation. He wants to believe that he can bring them to salvation, but a man can never be a God. My other theory is that he will be a final chapter sacrifice. A death is necessary for the group to escape and he will accept his new role of Martyrdom. Letting him finally become the savior he wanted to for the entire game.

🦋 Kai Monteago - Ultimate Influencer

Butterflies represent change, the butterfly effect. Kai will be the first culprit and this will lead to more fear without the group causing more people to want to kill. The flap of his wings will cause the tornado of death that will plague the group for the rest of the game. Short theory, but I feel strongly about it.

🐺 Jett Dawson - Ultimate Drag Racer

As I stated with Mark's theory, I see Jett as a culprit. Either Mark will be a victim and Jett will fall into despair driving him to murder in a later chapter, or he will kill somebody to escape with Mark. The only way this would work is a motive we're the backend can bring one person with them to the outside or they find a way for Jett and Mark to both equally be held accountable as the culprit. Though I'm not sure how something lijrme that could happen since the only instance is in SDRA2 chapter three and the plan behind that was bizarre (in a good way) and I doubt they could replicate anything similar.

🦁 Ingrid Grimwall - Ultimate Blacksmith

Ingrid is the only character I can't really think of anything for. I just have a strong feeling that she won't survive. Sorry.

🐲 Jean Delamer - Ultimate Ship Captain

I can see Jean as a chapter five victim. Since we see in the chapter one demo that he takes the hope speech guy role, I can see him dying fairly late in the game either as an "easy target" or since he's getting in the way of more murders happening.

🕷 Cassidy Amber - Ultimate Pro Gamer

I see Cassidy as a survivor, but I don't have any evidence. I just can't think of a theory for her as a victim, or as a culprit. She could also be the true mastermind, which is a fairly popular theory. That makes some sense considering her spider symbolism and the whole "tangled in a web" metaphor.

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to tell me any other theories you have!